Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 100

6 July 2026

Brief Notes on Various Topics – 100

1.  Money

In Laws Plato makes numerous comments on the way money corrupts politics and human relations in general.  Plato’s remarks on this topic sound surprisingly modern.  The role that the super wealthy play in politics these days is something Plato warned about.  But it’s not something that people in general have learned.

2.  Aligning the Mind with the Good and the One

My view is that the soul doesn’t change, does not develop, nor does the soul deteriorate under the influence of materiality.  I understand the soul to be still, passive, spacious, silent, and eternal. 

Because of this reason when I read passages in Platonic literature that speak of purifying the soul, or changing the soul, or a part of the soul, in some way, I reconfigure that in my own mind as some kind of change, such as purification, happening in the mind rather than the soul.  I say this because I understand the mind to be the seat, or origin, of differentiation in the individual; and that the mind is the presence of the noetic, or Mind, in the individual.

Because the nature of mind is differentiation, its energies are naturally focused on the many needs of the body and how to best fulfill them.  But if the mind begins, and the beginning can be very subtle, to differentiate between the agitations of the body and the placid nature of the soul, then it is possible for the mind to turn to the soul which is the source of that stillness.  Then the mind can make differentiations for the purpose of aligning the mind with the One, because the soul is the presence of the One in the individual.  This is how I understand differentiation and how it functions within a Platonic context.

The separation of body and soul that is spoken of in Dialogues like Phaedo, is accomplished by the mind’s ability to differentiate between that which aligns with the body and that which aligns with the soul, that which aligns with the ephemeral and that which aligns with the eternal.  This is the cultivation of wisdom and its application in practices such as purification through ascetic commitments.

3.  Old Age

I’ve been reading Plato’s Laws.  The three characters in the dialogue are all old men and this has led me to think about how old age impacts how one views the world.  When you reach old age, you realize that there are things you have often thought of doing that you will never do, that you do not have time to read all the books on that list of books you want to read, that most of the people you know have passed away and they are not being replaced by others (your social circle shrinks), and that a sunset is more enticing than the latest movie.  (As an aside, I have a fond memory of my grandparents, my father’s mother and father, who on most evenings would watch the sun set behind a stand of trees that was on the border of a state nature reserve that bordered their own property.  There was something very attractive about this custom of theirs that appealed to me even as a child.)

Plato does not specifically talk about old age in Laws (but Plato does talk about old age in the Republic).  But the circumstances of the dialogue are shaped by the fact that the three participants in the dialogue are elderly.  For example, the three participants walk at a slow pace because of their age (and because of the summer heat), and they stop frequently at shady spots by the road, or path, to refresh themselves before walking again.  I think this pace is embodied in the dialogue itself; in the way a topic is lingered over in remarkable detail before moving on to another topic.  It’s like the conversation has paused in some philosophical shade and when they finish the topic, then they start on the path of inquiry again. 

I also think that there is a connection between Laws and Phaedrus in that both dialogues take place in the open, outside of the city, and both dialogues take place in the heat of summer.  An openair setting is rare in Plato’s Dialogues.  And it is not often that Plato spends time on descriptions of the setting beyond a few masterful strokes.  But in Laws and Phaedrus Plato seems to spend time on the natural setting.  And the setting and season in some sense seems to shape both dialogues.  It’s not clear to me if there are specific topics that both dialogues explore; I can’t recall right now if that is the case.  But I think it’s a possibility that is worth exploring, especially if the reader also explores the undermeaning of the dialogues.

4.  Levels of Reading

The levels of reading we can engage in when reading Plato’s Dialogues resemble the levels of reality in Platonic Cosmology.  At one level the focus is on the material world of the Dialogue we are reading; things like the individuals involved in the verbal exchange, the location of the dialogue, the setting, the season, the activity that surrounds the dialogue (like a festival), and so forth.  At another level the focus is on the ideas being discussed; this is the noetic realm, the realm of Platonic Forms.  This is also where analytical tools such as reason and metaphor apply.  And finally, at another level still, the focus is on the transcendental, on the Good and the One, on that which is Eternal, eternity as such.  Sometimes one or the other levels takes center stage in a dialogue; but importantly, I think all three are present, either explicitly, or in the background, in each of the Dialogues.

5.  The ‘Brief Notes’ Series

This is the 100^th post in the Brief Notes series.  It took me awhile to find this way of writing about Platonism, but once I did, I found it very congenial.  Overall the Brief Notes series feels a bit like a collage where the individual pieces of the collage, as well s the overall presentation, both are attractive.  There are precedents for this way of writing philosophy.  I think the earliest example in the West is Heraclitus whose pungent and powerful sayings have impacted people for thousands of years.  Nietzsche is a modern example of someone who could write attractive aphorisms.  Outside of the West, a work like the Dao De Ching is a series of very brief notes on various topics that people have studied and commented on for thousands of years.  In India, the Yoga Sutras are also an example of short form sayings used to communicated an enduring metaphysical view.

There exists a collection of ‘Epigrams’ attributed to Plato; there are eighteen of them in the Hackett Complete Works.  Attribution is disputed.  But it does show a short form, the epigram, was at one point in Platonist history considered worthy of inclusion in collections of Plato’s writings.  In any case, Brief Notes seems to work well for me and I look forward to the next 100 Brief Notes in the years to come.

 

 

24 October 2022

Love of Reading

I see reading as a central practice of the Platonic tradition.  The reading, and rereading, of the Dialogues of Plato are the ground from which the garden of Platonism flourishes.  A few comments on reading in the Platonic tradition follow:

1. For Platonists reading Platonic literature is a pleasure rather than a task or duty.  I think that Platonists feel that way because Platonic literature transmits insight, wisdom, beauty, and the presence of the transcendent.  This is not easy to explain, and it doesn’t happen every single time a Platonist reads the Dialogues or the Enneads, but it happens often enough that the experience is nourishing to the soul.

2. I see the Dialogues of Plato and the Enneads of Plotinus as the two great wings of the Platonic tradition.  This is not meant to diminish other examples of Platonic literature.  As mentioned in a previous post I have a great fondness for The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius.  But I find in Plato and Plotinus a sense of completeness, a sense of subtlety, a feeling that they are based on an almost unimaginable depth of experience, and because of this I think these two surpass other examples of Platonic literature even though those other examples have their virtues.

3. I think that for a Platonist daily reading of the core texts is essential.  I think it is as important as contemplation or vegetarianism or refraining from alcohol and drugs.  I think this kind of reading is a form of purification.  First, it purifies the practitioner by using their time wisely; instead of spending time on worldly concerns, the time spent reading the core literature of Platonism is a gentle teaching on how one should spend the time of one’s life.  As the reading progresses, and understanding increases, the value of this practice of reading becomes apparent.

4. I have a two-year reading program.  In the first year I read the Platonic Dialogues.  In the second year I read the Enneads of Plotinus.  With each reading I develop a greater understanding of what Plato taught, the path Plato points to, and how to instantiate these teachings in my own life.

5. At times Plato warns against writing and literature.  In Phaedrus Socrates offers that reading can make someone think they are wise when they are not.  It is an amazing passage in the Dialogues and I suspect it is there as a warning to followers of the Platonic Way.  I see it as a warning to not use these works for worldly purposes or to inflate the individual ego. 

6. The literature of Platonism is vast.  Beyond the Dialogues of Plato and the Enneads of Plotinus there are additional sources of wisdom.  My two favorites are Porphyry and Boethius.  And there are also a large number of commentaries, ancient and modern, that are helpful.  Reading this additional literature allows the reader to hear the Platonic teachings in a new voice, with different applications and concerns.  Gradually there develops a sense of a great chorus of voices, all singing in harmony, participating in a complex polyphonic display of awesome beauty.

7. Platonic literature is not an easy read.  The level of difficulty varies, but overall, I would say, for the most part, they are complex.  There are exceptions; works like Phaedo and The Symposium have immediate accessibility.  But I bring this up because I think it is helpful to recognize the complexity and not expect to understand some of the more profound works on a first reading; I am thinking of works like Plato’s Dialogue Parmenides or Plotinus’s Sixth Ennead.  Works like these are absorbed over repeated readings (as an aside this is also true for a work like Phaedo; the difference is that Phaedo, because of its setting, and its narrative, is accessible the first time around as a story.  In contrast, Dialogues like Parmenides, Timaeus, and The Laws, are more difficult). 

A lifelong dedication to reading Platonic literature is needed to open up some of the deeper, one might almost say esoteric, aspects of these works.  I know that every time I have reread one of these works my understanding has deepened.  Just this year while I was reading Meno a teaching fell into place.

8. On a practical level it is good to set aside a regular time for this kind of spiritual reading.  I recommend setting aside a specific time on a daily basis.  But life circumstances vary, and an individual will best know how to integrate regular reading of the Platonic classics into their lives.

Above I mentioned my two-year cycle of reading, one year for Plato's Dialogues, followed by a year for Plotinus's Enneads.  One virtue of this kind of structured approach is that the time commitment on a daily basis, is not that great.  When the Dialogues and the Enneads are spread out over a whole year, it ends up that one is reading something like three to five pages a day.  One can read more, of course, but in this very busy modern world I have found that extending the reading over a full year is doable.

I also think that it is good to have what I think of as a ‘ceremony of respect’ when starting and concluding the reading.  It can be as simple as a brief bow at the beginning and ending, or it can be elaborate with candles and incense, for example.  Again, individuals will find the right surrounding structure that best suits them. 

9. Words can be vehicles for the transmission of wisdom, nourishment for the soul, and a map to eternity.